Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1887-01-08
DEATH in BLAZING CARS.

TOLEDO, OHIO, Jan. THE
limited express on the B. Il o. II. r.
which left Baltimore a. nine o'clock
yesterday morning, and Washington
an hour later, collided with freight
train at 2:10 this morning, one mile
west of Republic, ond sixteen miles
west of Chicago Junction, and
caused a terrible wreck and loss of
life. The passenger train consisted
of two sleepers--One from Baltimore
and one from Pittsburg-a baggage
car, and express and mail car. There
were about fifteen persons in the
Baltim ore sleeper, all OF whom es-
capped injury, SO far as known.
ALI OF the persons killed are sup
posed to have been in the smoker.
The accident occurred on a single
track. misunderstanding of orders
was the cause. There we're sixty
five passengers on the train. The
smoking car took fire Immediately
after the crash, and the imprisoned
passengers held IN torture by the
wrecked Car were most of them
slowly roasted to death. The loco
motives came together with fright.
full crash, and both were totally
demolished. Burning Goals from
the furnaces few over the cars. The
shock of the collision was felt at
Republic, mile away. The dying
and wounded were taken to Repub.
lie. The horror of the situation was
increased by the intense cold, the
temperature below zero and the
ground covered with snow.
1t was an awful scene. Women
whose husbands, brothers or friends
had left them to enjoy smoke but
an hour or so before, stood about
the blazing car, filling the air with
their screams for help. They knew
their beloved ones were being burn.
ed alive, and some of the dying men
could be seen writing in agony,
their arms or legs being pinioned
by timbers of the wrecked car.
Those saved from the wreck
remaining In Republic were a
mother with three little ones. hardly
out of their swaddling clothes, the
husband and father, with two sons,
having been deyoured by the flames
of the burning cars. In some way
that even the mother was unable to
relate, she got out of the car 10
which she had been travelling and,
wandering away from the burning
train, carrying her two youngest
children in her arms, entered the
first house in which she found a
light, and with difficulty it was as.
certained that her name vas Mrs.
Mary Postletwhaite. The family
were on their way to Missouri, and
expected to find a home in Chilli
Gothic, in that state. They had been
living near the town of Bolton,
Wetzel county, w. Va. Her hus.
band, William Postletwhaite, was
fitty-eight years of age, and the sons
killed with him were aged sixteen
and eleven.
w. Scott Pierce, the baggage
master, was from Grafton. w. Va.
He was about twenty.three or
twenty-four years old, and only mar.
ried about three weeks ago. He
is nephew of Editor j. w. Holt, of
the Grafton Eagle, by whom he was
employed before going into the
railroad business.
The effect of the collision can be
better imagined than described.
The engines of the two trains reared
into the air like a pair of enraged
living monsters, and then settled
down upon the track, driven into
each other until the cylinders
touched. The force of the impact
jammed the baggage cars into the
the tender of the fast train, the
express car into the baggage, and
the smoker into the express. In
less than five minutes from the
moment of the collision, and before
any organized effort at a rescue
could be made, the fire of the over
turned stoves communicated to the
woodwork, and the flames leaped
high in the air, their roar mingling
with the cries of anguish of the i'm
prisoned victims to whom death, in
its most terrible form, was horrid
presence.
CINCINNATI, Jan. 4.-The Com.
mercial correspondent gives seven.
teen as the number who were killed,
and says that out of fifteen passen.
gers in the smoker but one escaped.